Formulation of Millet-based Functional Chicken Meat Biscuits Using Finger, Pearl and Foxtail Varieties and Analysis of Physicochemical Changes during Ambient Storage

Abstract

Meat-based biscuits are valued for their long shelf life and convenience as ready-to-eat snacks. The addition of millets enhances their nutritional profile while offering an innovative approach to value addition in the meat industry. Control biscuits were prepared using refined wheat flour and chicken meat powder, whereas in the treatment samples, refined wheat flour was replaced with 30% finger millet, 40% pearl millet and 30% foxtail millet. This study evaluated the physicochemical changes in control and millet-incorporated chicken biscuits during 60 days of storage. A significant decline in pH, lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*) values, along with an increase in water activity and redness (a*) values, was observed. Between the day of preparation and the 60th day, the pH of the control sample decreased from 6.28 to 6.05, whereas that of the foxtail millet-incorporated chicken biscuits decreased from 6.10 to 6.01. The lightness (L*) of the control sample decreased from 60.4 to 51.75, while the finger millet-incorporated chicken biscuits showed a decline from 51.23 to 44.9 between the day of preparation and the last day of storage. Similarly, the yellowness (b*) values also decreased over time. In the control sample, the value decreased from 34.46 to 28.86, and in the finger millet-incorporated chicken biscuits, it declined from 24.53 to 22.71 during the same storage period. On the 60th day, the water activity values of the control sample and the chicken biscuit samples incorporating finger millet, pearl millet and foxtail millet were 0.550, 0.458, 0.515 and 0.510, respectively. Millet incorporation helped maintain water activity below 0.6 and improved stability, with all samples remaining within safe limits. Overall, the inclusion of millets enhanced shelf stability, nutritional potential and product quality while maintaining cost-effectiveness, supporting their use in developing functional meat-based snack products.